Some unnoticed qualities which emerged in Andy’s footage and audio of my familiar place being my route to work, was the amount of blue that I walk past. I had no idea there was so much blue on Elizabeth St, Andy really did a great job of trying to capture every piece of blue he saw, whether it was a sign, a door, a bank, clothing on a person and even blue tarp of construction works. I also noticed more atmosphere noise by watching Andy’s footage and audio, as when I am on my way to work I am always so focused on getting to work that I unintentionally seem to block out lots the atmosphere around me.

I believe our edit is successful in terms of the video showcasing our two different locations, and it represents how we did aim to stick to our recipe in terms of the way we filmed our locations. The video also does show how Andy and I noticed unique aspects to our footage and audio we did not notice while filming. What I learnt about noticing and nonfiction through doing this activity is that when I am in a location that I visit very regularly, I will only notice very minimal aspects to that place, for example one specific coffee shop, and not all the nonfiction in its entirety. I also learnt that when I visit a place I rarely go to, such as the South Melbourne Market, I am immediately more open to noticing more, as my attention is drawn to many aspects of that place. This is also evident when looking at Andy’s footage and audio, as he obviously noticed a lot of non fiction around him on my route to work, as his attention was drawn to many aspects of that place.

As perhaps when our minds are introduced to anything new, we are much more susceptible to noticing more, for example when listening to ‘Starry Night’ in class, listening to sounds of a place I have never been to, broadened my imagination, and my attention was drawn to as many sounds as possible. Two questions which have evolved for me about noticing and nonfiction through doing this work is, is it possible for one to suddenly notice and draw their attention to more surroundings in an area of nonfiction they are always accustomed to, just by witnessing that same space through the lens or eyes of someone else? And can ones depiction of nonfiction around them be broadened by only sound and or description? If one closes their eyes and just listens?

Throughout Wednesday of week 4, Andy and I began to edit our footage. The footage we had was relatively similar to the recipe in terms of the still and moving shots we wanted to get, as we followed people move and stayed still as people moved around us. What Andy and I did both notice was the movement of people in our different places, as in the city people are usually quick and ready to get somewhere fast, whereas in a market place, people usually have the time and leisure walk slow and browse. An aspect to the recipe was to capture anything each of us noticed, that stood out, and for both Andy and I after watching the footage back, I have realised that colours was something that both us of noticed. For me personally it was any bright colour, especially with food such as the oysters and the fruits and I noticed that for Andy, it was the colour Blue that captured his attention. I also noticed interesting wall art at the South Melbourne Market, and a young busker playing the piano.

On Wednesday, Andy and I played around with the idea of using the 4 second piano sound the busker made and using it with both my footage and his footage. I really liked the way the audio of the piano originally from the market was edited to be played over Andy’s footage of the CBD, as I realised audio can really combine two completely different places. Therefore during the editing we trialled what the piano sounds along with diegetic sound of the atmosphere from both locations would sound like in the video and I think it was successful. As our footage is similar in some ways, yet also relatively different, it is  important for our footage to be combined via audio in my opinion. I especially was drawn to editing with audio because of the idea of how audio can draw attention away from just what is being seen.

I unfortunately was not able to come to Mondays class, however the readings for week 4 gave me a solid insight as to what the focus of week 4 was, such as the idea of there being a blind spot in a photo or video, in which there is so much more to notice visually then what is seen straight away. The reading ‘ghostly forms and forest histories’ includes an extreme in depth description of the Author Andrew Matthews walking through a forest of trees with his botanist assistant, writing down and making note of every little detail that he notices, that not even a photo or video could give justice to. There is a photo attached to the book, of a tree stump, yet it is because of the description, the words, that coincide with the photo, that one can look outside of the blind spot, to notice so much more than whats seen in the photo.

The other reading for the week, ‘Blind Spot’ very much highlights the real science behind a humans blind spot in terms of perception, as it makes a point of asking the question, do we us as humans see the world directly, or a an “internally generated representation of the world.” For example in Wednesdays class, when we looked at Tian’s photo of a building in a city lane, along with listening to her description of what she saw, initially all I noticed was a building in a lane way. Yet when I began listening to her description of what she could notice, I noticed more in the photo, such as a red pole, black chairs and curved window frames.

During Wednesday’s class, we also were able to look at a project from a student from last year called ‘Mia’s The House’. This video had the exact same idea of including a visual of different rooms in her house, yet her own description of each room enabled me to notice more about the footage itself, as her words such as when she talks about her fridge taking up a lot space in the Kitchen, my attention did drift from just focusing on what was in the frame, to outside of the frame also. The idea of the ‘blind spot’ is very interesting and is something to think about for assessment 2, that audio has the ability to draw peoples attention away from solely what is being shown visually.

On wednesday’s class of week 3, Andy (my partner for assessment 2) and I began to discuss ideas for how we might go about filming the 2 minute video. This was after Andy and I had decided on our two separate locations, one being my route to work along Elizabeth St, and another being the South Melbourne Market, where Andy spends lots of his time. I was very intrigued about what types of footage each of us were going to capture, to see if I would notice aspects to my route to work I have never noticed before, through Andy’s eyes. We deliberated for quite sometime during that lesson to agree on a recipe for filming and recording what we will see in an interesting way. Therefore the recipe we did decide to stick to was this one;

Ingredients

• Audio recorder
• Video recorder
• Note of the things

Steps:

• 4x 5 second potrait video of you moving around the space
• 6x 5 second landsape videos of people moving around in the space
• 15 second audio recordings of people talking, shop venders, customers etc.
• 2 second recordings off the food that we are interested in
• videos of the food we eat
• 4 second videos fo interesting things we notice.
• 1x 2min  central audio recording of the area we decide in our respective places is the most central part of the place

We thought that this specific recipe would capture what we will see in a unique way visually, including a variety of portrait and landscape shots as well as using still footage and hand help walking shots. We are both interested in food, so to capture any food we come across was an idea that stood out to us. And recording one 2 minute sound clips each of atmosphere ambiance from each location is something that really sets the scene for our footage and also can allow viewers to notice more about a space that may not necessarily be in the footage. Therefore I am interested to see what footage and sound we will capture in each of our locations using this recipe, as well as seeing if our footage and sound are similar or very different.

During week 3 of Seeing the Unseen, we were introduced properly to Assessment 2, such as who my partner is and what our recipe will be for the 2 minute video. It was also the week in which the idea of noticing only audio was introduced. The readings for week 3, ‘Field Recordings as Sonic Journalism and ‘Listening, Meaning and Power’ from the book ‘On Listening’ give unique insight into the idea of solely listening without viewing. Peter Cusack in the chapter ‘Field Recordings as Sonic Journalism’ straight away makes reference to an audio clip called ‘Starry Night’ by Mazen Kerbaj, a clip we listened to in class. This audio clip was recorded from a balcony “during Israel’s summer war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

The reading highlights some key sounds that are hard to miss such as dogs barking, blast triggers and car alarms, however in class, with headphones on, we were given the chance to just close our eyes and listen. The point of that exercise was obviously to try to hear as many sounds as possible, yet without immediately categorizing those sounds. To be able to let the mind wonder and hear a sound first without constantly picturing what the sound is straight away. The reading also discusses field recordings in sonic journalism, which is only extremely clear to hear without visuals, as it is not an obvious sound. Field recordings “transmit a powerful sense of spatiality, atmosphere and timing”, (Cusack), for example when listening to ‘Starry Night’ without visuals, I could notice unique sounds in the distance such as faint sirens and alarms, which does help set a location in ones mind as to where the location of sound is.

The activity conducted in Monday’s class of week 3 was related to this idea of location sound and field recording. Jack and I decided to record sound in Melbourne Central Station, we therefore recorded two minutes each of diegetic sound in one spot, and not recording any individual sounds in particular. We also recorded 5 10 second audio clips of specific train station sounds. Jack and I did surprisingly find this challenging, having to find 10 different sounds all together. Yet what I have learnt since completing this activity, is that I should stop focusing too much on what sounds or footage I should record prior to recording, but think about what I can notice after recording or filming. And especially in terms of sound itself, perhaps the idea of only recording sound for assessment 2 with nothing visual to go with it is an interesting idea. As perhaps it will draw sounds out that would not have been recognised if there was a visual with it.